Melissa and I graduated from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, near
my hometown of Harrisburg, PA, in
May 2003.I graduated with a B.S.Ed. in History and Comprehensive Social Studies
Education and a minor in Philosophy.Melissa graduated with B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Women’s
Studies.
Melissa graduated with her
Master of Arts in Sociology from The Catholic University
of America in May 2005. She is currently research associate for CARA (The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate) at Georgetown University. She was formerly research associate at the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and formerly a survey specialist at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, DC.Melissa has also worked as a researcher with Dr. Dean Hoge at CUA, as a researcher for the US Census Bureau, as a consultant for parishes
of the Archdiocese of Washington, as an intern for the Pennsylvania Department
of Corrections, and as a counselor at an emergency youth shelter.
We belong to St. Camillus Parish, a dynamic,
multi-cultural, Catholic community in
Silver Spring
,
Maryland
, led by the Franciscan friars of Holy Name Province. In 2004 Melissa oversaw a parishwide survey as part of our triennial pastoral planning process, the report that she wrote on the study was incredibly helpful in the planning process - St. Camillus Pastoral
Planning Survey Report.
Melissa is an alumna of Riverside High School in Ellwood City, PA and I am an alumnus of St. Lawrence Seminary in
Mt.
Calvary
, Wisconsin. St. Lawrence is a ministry of the Capuchin Franciscan friars
of the Province of St. Joseph. It is one of the few surviving high school
seminaries in the
United States
.St. Lawrence’s unique mission is
preparing young men for lives of ministry in the Church and society as lay men,
priests, deacons, and religious through rigorous academics, community living,
and spirituality make it one of the treasures of the Catholic Church. I previously served as the president of the St. Lawerence Seminary Alumni Association.
July 27-30. 2007, we travelled to Fall River, Mass. for Melissa's cousin Richie's wedding. The trip included Margaret's first airplane flight as well as an unplanned (brief) visits to New York City, the New Jersey Turnpike and many other exciting locations.
On March 24, 2007,
we found out that we have been blessed with our second child. This second “photo” of
him was taken on
June 29 ,
2007
.
We expect his arrival to the outside world to be around November 27th
.
Joseph Emanuel was born on Nov. 19, 2007
at Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring, MD.
He was born at 1:19 pm
and weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz..
Before
we left for
Poland
we found out that we had been blessed with our first child. This beautiful first “photo” of
Margaret Rose was taken on
May 25,
2005
. We expected her
arrival to the outside world to be around December 20th
Margaret was born Christmas Eve, Dec 24, 2005
at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD.
She was born at 5:36 pm
and weighed 8 lbs. 9.5 oz.
From May 3-8, 2005 we had the
honor of being part of a delegation of Catholic educators that the Anti-Defamation League took to
Poland for the March of Living, held at
Auschwitz-Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance
Day (May 5, 2005) in memory of the 60th anniversary of the end
of World War II in Europe. As part of the
pilgrimage we visited Czestochova, Auschwitz and Birkenau,
Krakow
, the Warsaw Ghetto, and Majdanek extermination camp in
Lublin
,
Poland
. This was one of the most powerful
experiences in our lives. As
Christians, since touching the walls of the gas chamber at Majdanek, we are more committed to living the Gospel and
ensuring that we see Christ in the poor, sick, and marginalized so that we
can honestly carry on the Holocaust survivors’ mantra NEVER AGAIN!
May 27-29, 2005
, Melissa and I had
the pleasure of being with my best friend from high school, Michael Radowicz,
for his presbyteral ordination and first
Masses. Michael is now a priest of the
Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin. He is
stationed as the parochial vicar at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Sun
Prairie, WI.
From June 18 to
July
12, 2005
, I had the opportunity to travel to 中国 (
China
) and 한국 (
Korea
) with a
group of teachers thanks to the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA) and the Freeman
Foundation. This amazing trip allowed
me to view, up close, the complexity of both
China
and
Korea
. It was mind boggling to go from the
expansive boomtown of Shanghai with it’s hundreds of sparkling new
skyscrapers to the rural Huang Shan region of Anhui Province where people live and farm more or less how they did hundreds of
years ago (with the exception of the ubiquitous satellite dishes and internet
bars). The beggars and
“hello” who flock around tourists in the
Beijing
,
the capital of the PEOPLE’s Republic of
China,
only serve as a reminder of the complexity of modernization and the
inadequacy of labels or ideologies.
Korea
’s
western economy is a wonder.
During the Iraq War we worked
hard to try and keep those around us focused on our responsibilities of care
and concern for the Iraqi people … those responsibilities still exist now
more than ever. Please click on the link below to read about our efforts to
remember “Our Family in Iraq.”
Or click here to learn about the program Operation
Iraqi Children – during Advent and Christmas 2004 the student council
and community at St. Peter’s
InterparishSchool
collected enough supplies to make 21 kits which we sent to Iraqi schools via
Operation Iraqi Children.
